IN amateur athletics, athletes from small clubs may be selected by larger clubs in events that the smaller club do not participate in. Harlow AC’s Leo Chashchin has come to the attention of Enfield and Haringey and he was selected as ‘second claim’ for their first British Athletic League match in Wigan this weekend.

He took part in four events; 400m Hurdles, Discus, High Jump and Pole Vault. By his own admission he was feeling a little overawed and felt that he could have achieved more. He cleared every height in the high jump up to 1.70m but then couldn’t get over 1.75m, a height that is usually comfortable.

In the pole vault he managed 3.00m using his new, longer pole. He will go higher but much like breaking in new shoes it will take some adjustment to get used to it. Next he threw 2k discus for the first time and threw one just short of 20m at 19.15m. He did get one out further but sadly for him stepped out of the circle.

His final event was 400m hurdles which he ran well to end his weekend on a high. His time of 60.59s was a PB by some distance and is the quickest time of any Harlow man this season. It is also just short of the U20 national qualification mark.

On hearing the news, club chair Steve Lott said; “Leo is a driven young man with a lot of talent. I’m glad that this has been recognised and I hope that he will be invited to more British League matches by Enfield and Haringey in the future. Competing against high quality opposition more often will only help to further his ambition to be selected for England and, who knows, maybe even Great Britain at some point. Many congratulations to him.”